“Why does my daughter scream out in her sleep?”
My daughter is 4 years old and nearly every night she'll scream out in her sleep. Sometimes she wakes up, but other times she remains asleep during these episodes. I don’t know if this is night terrrors or bad dreams or what. What can I do to find out what's going on with my child when she sleeps?
3 Answers
Based on how you’re describing it, they sound like night terrors. Usually kids do not even have memory of the dream. Best to get her evaluated by a sleep specialist.
Please take her to a child counselor or a child psychiatrist.
In night terrors, they usually wake up screaming, but are disoriented, and when they get fully awake, they are okay and do not remember the event. It is usually a recurrent sleep problem. If she just cries out, she may be sleep talking. This is also a parasomnia event related to the stage of sleep. These usually run in families. You can do a sleep study with neurology and see what is going on.
